Tour of Loveland cemetery a highlight of Historic Preservation Month

Loveland Historical Society member Sharon Perry shows images of symbolism that appear on headstones to the participants in the annual Lakeside Cemetery Walking Tour May 19 in Loveland.
(
Shelley Widhalm
)

It's fitting that five minutes before the start of the Lakeside Cemetery Walking Tour, rain fell.

Loveland Historical Society members Sharon Perry and Ann Ague considered postponing the tour, but after a few minutes the rain eased. They took turns guiding the eight visitors through one of two burial parks that are part of the Loveland cemetery, which spans 47 acres divided by U.S. 287.

As they walked over the grounds, Perry and Ague told stories of Loveland's pioneers and prominent people from the past and explained American burial traditions and customs. Their tour, hosted by the Historical Society every year, coordinated with Historic Preservation Month in May.

"There's history. There's art. And there's stories to tell," Ague said at Lakeside Cemetery, 1702 N. Cleveland Ave., explaining that with the use of just a hammer and chisel, "amazing artwork" resulted.

"There's more to see than just burying somebody," she said.

When Loveland was founded in 1877, the city needed a cemetery, so on Feb. 5, 1880, W.B. Osborn and G.W. Litle signed the incorporation of Lakeside Burial Park. The prominent Timpke-Osborn family owned the cemetery until 1919, when the city purchased and took over its management.

The first burial in the park took place in 1880 for Elizabeth Burdette, but the oldest grave is for Joseph McFadden, who died in 1877. His grave was moved from the Old St. Louis Cemetery.

Judge W.B. Osborn moved the Big Thompson Cemetery, later know as the Old St. Louis Cemetery, to Lakeside in 1884. The Timpke-Osborn family had erected a two-tone headstone for their family lot that contained eight plots.

In 1912, Wilbert Stiles, a wealthy land and water owner, started Loveland Burial Park nearby. Mayor Archibald Foster wanted the city to operate both cemeteries as one, so the city purchased Loveland Burial Park in 1919, the same year the city received the deed of transfer for Lakeside Cemetery.

The headstones in Lakeside Cemetery carry a variety of images, including animals, angels and plants.

"You wonder about the story that goes with that," Ague said. "If you see a lamb on the headstone, that indicates that's a child."

In recent years, an anonymous person or group laid out angels, made of ceramic and other materials, on the headstones of children.

"They are all different kinds," Ague said.

Perry, who led the second half of the two-hour tour, temporarily removed a shiny black stone from one of the headstones.

"Once in awhile you might see a little stone or a penny," Perry said. "That means respect."